Blu-Ray Review: Audrey Rose
The question of what happens to us when we die has taxed the human psyche since the days of early man. The innate need for something more, something better, than this mortal coil has driven us towards religion. The carrot of paradise for ‘being good’ or the stick of eternal damnation for ‘being bad’ is …
Blu-Ray Review: The Sleeping Tiger
Nurture of nature? One of the oldest debates in the book. Are we fated to live out the lives our genes afford us, or is our upbringing instrumental in making us the person we will become? For those who are proponents of the latter, childhood is the most important stage of development. It’s in these …
Film Review: Final Cut
One of the greatest scourges of modern cinema is that of the remake. Lazy Hollywood producers notice the success of a film that is (usually) made in a language other than English and decide it’s a cheap shortcut to making a lot of money. Sadly, 95% of the time, the result is something fairly awful. …
Film Review: Nocebo
The fashion industry has a myriad of problems which no one seems to want to talk about. From fuelling eating disorders to a needlessly high impact on climate change, it’s a cutthroat business that tends to attract the most talented, chew them up and then spit them out. Young designers enter the industry and face …
Film Review: Return to Dust
Making a film in China is a tricky business at the best of times, but when it’s a period of heightened political activity the censors are on guard for anything which in any way could besmirch the ruling party or its leader. While Return to Dust had proved to be a success in the PRC, …
Film Review: Soft & Quiet
The concept of shooting a film in one single take is a vast technical undertaking. One which most directors steer well clear of, largely due to the huge amount of complexity and peril it involves. Not to mention how difficult it is to do well. Many consider it to be the zenith of the art …
Film Review: Good Night Oppy
David Bowie asked “Is there life on Mars?” The answer is possibly not, but there’s evidence to suggest there once might have been. Martians would not have been little green men though, although you never know….When we look to the stars there are countless possibilities, but could humans actually colonise another planet? The sheer logistics …
Film Review: Meet Me in The Bathroom
There are few things more exhilarating in music than being part of a scene. A group of likeminded musicians and bands who come together organically, usually around the same people or places. As a collective, they share a similar sound, mentality or ethos and, more often than not, the same fanbase. These artists feed off …
Film Review: Hunt
The political situation in a modern East Asia always seems to be a little precarious, but it’s often tensions between South Korea and North Korea which set nerves on edge. Not a year goes by, it seems, without Kim Jong-un launching a missile test and there are always citizens of the DPR looking to defect. …
Tokyo Film Festival Review: Peacock’s Lament
While there’s undoubtedly a growing level of hardship in all European countries, I don’t think most people can grasp what absolute poverty looks like. Not just the inability to feed your family well, but the lack of basics such as housing, water and food. About a quarter of Sri Lankans live in poverty and with …